Official Languages Committee on Sept. 20th, 2016

[Joël Godin, Conservative, Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC]

How much time are you calculating to draft the report?

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

We have set aside three meetings for the report.

Remember that it also has to be revised, printed and tabled.

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

Ms. Lecomte will be working hard.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

If I'm calculating correctly, we might have 10 two-hour meetings for a total of about 20 hours.

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

In that case, we need to reduce the number of witnesses.

[Sylvie Boucher, Conservative, Beauport—Côte-de-Beaupré—Île d’Orléans—Charlevoix, QC]

We won't have a choice.

[Darrell Samson, Liberal, Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, NS]

We also need to determine whether the testimonies will last 30 minutes or an hour.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Exactly.

We can go back to the topics one by one, if you wish.

First, there's immigration in general.

[Darrell Samson, Liberal, Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, NS]

That's already been settled. We'll have one hour to discuss it in general on Monday, and two hours to discuss immigration in minority communities. Then it will be done.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

So there will be three hours for that issue.

Let's move on to the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages.

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

Personally, I would drop it.

[Sylvie Boucher, Conservative, Beauport—Côte-de-Beaupré—Île d’Orléans—Charlevoix, QC]

Yes.

[An hon. member]

Me, too.

[Darrell Samson, Liberal, Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, NS]

But perhaps the analysts—

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

We can set it aside.

[Sylvie Boucher, Conservative, Beauport—Côte-de-Beaupré—Île d’Orléans—Charlevoix, QC]

Precisely.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

Right.

There's also Canadian Heritage.

[An hon. member]

As far as I'm concerned, I'd drop it.

[Some hon. members]

Me, too.

[Darrell Samson, Liberal, Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, NS]

Perhaps we should invite some representatives from the department because we can't let the department off the hook. It might take about 30 minutes to talk about francophone immigration in official language minority communities. We could check whether the department is involved in this area and to what extent.

[Paul Lefebvre, Liberal, Sudbury, ON]

Let's see what the people from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada say. Perhaps they will explain what Canadian Heritage is doing or not doing in this area.

[Sylvie Boucher, Conservative, Beauport—Côte-de-Beaupré—Île d’Orléans—Charlevoix, QC]

We could simply ask Mr. Boissonnault.

[The Chair, Liberal, Denis Paradis]

He's not there.

[Sylvie Boucher, Conservative, Beauport—Côte-de-Beaupré—Île d’Orléans—Charlevoix, QC]

He's not there right now, true, but he is the parliamentary secretary. He will agree to meet with us. We could ask him questions for 30 minutes. He could tell us what the situation is.

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

Let's set this aside.